1). Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and system of processing a sale of a subscription.
2). Discussion of Related Art
Magazine publishers normally rely on traditional payment methods to establish or renew subscriptions for their publications. A user may for example purchase a magazine off the shelf in a store. A postcard is often located within the magazine. The user can enter their delivery address on the postcard and send the postcard to the publisher together with a check for payment. After a period of time, typically twelve months, the user is sent a renewal notification, which the user then returns to the publisher with another check.
Users may also register for subscription on a publisher website. The publisher website will collect delivery address information from the user and receive payment by credit card.
The establishment of an account may be a barrier for most users. Frequently, a user will not purchase a magazine or will not go online on a publisher website because of the amount of effort that is involved in terms of time and the number of fields that have to be filled out. Even after the user has purchased the magazine or they have gone online, the initial effort of entering delivery address information may be too much for some users and they may terminate the process of establishing an account, which results in them not being converted into subscription customers.
A consumer who shops for goods or services online may often be given the option to use a selection of payment sources during checkout, such as payment by credit card, debit card, payment from an account held by an institution, or to charge for a purchase on their phone bill. When the consumer selects to charge to their phone bill, a merchant server instructs a billing server which is aligned with a carrier server to carry out the charge. The billing server usually communicates with a consumer mobile phone to confirm the charge before placing the charge on the phone bill at the carrier server.
Consumers also purchase subscriptions online, typically for services such as music or movies, and then make repeat payments on a monthly or other billing cycle. These subscriptions are usually charged directly to a credit card account held by a financial institution. Repeated communications with the consumer to confirm each renewal charge is not required in such a situation. However, if such a charge is submitted by a merchant server to a carrier server, the carrier server typically has a requirement to confirm the charge with the consumer mobile phone. A billing cycle may go by wherein the consumer has neglected to confirm the charge, in which case the subscription would be lost to the merchant.